


Brace For Impact

by Vixx2pointOh



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternative Universe - No Arrow, Angst and Feels, Beach Sex, Bearded!Oliver, Eventual Smut, F/M, FICWAR, Lian Yu, Plotty, Sex In A Cave, Stranded, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 03:22:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10688754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vixx2pointOh/pseuds/Vixx2pointOh
Summary: Felicity Smoak hated mysteries.The sinking of the Gambit was one she thought she could solve four years after it went down.But when her helicopter goes down over Lian Yu she finds more than she bargained for.





	Brace For Impact

**Author's Note:**

> And the winner is THURSDAY.
> 
> Sorry those of you that wanted this first, but don't worry, I will keep this here to remind me and I WILL write it when I have the chance 
> 
> Xox

“Brace for impact”  
Felicity heard the words at least a dozen more times after the pilot had spoken them. Screaming alarms echoed through the helicopter as it spun in circles, the tail rotor completely sheered off.

Felicity’s brain was trying to keep up as smells and sounds and flashing hues of amber flames from the back of the helicopter fogged her brain.

 _Brace for impact_  
She closed her eyes to hold onto some semblance of control. If she was going to die like this, with those three words etched into her brain, well then the least her mind could do was to offer her some memories to call up on.

A mother she would never see again.  
A nice, comfortable job that she wouldn’t go back to.  
A cat that she really hoped her neighbour would remember to feed.  
That really nice dress she bought last month on a drunken online splurge but hadn’t found the occasion to wear it yet.

 _Brace for impact._  
_Okay._

Her fingers gripped tighter to the seatbelt, turning her knuckles white and she could hear Gavin next to her screaming every curse word he knew – some of which, in a lucid moment, Felicity realised she hadn’t heard before.

 _Sorry Gavin_  
He had boarded this helicopter because she had asked.

 _Brace for impact_  
This had all been some foolish expedition because she hated mysteries and she thought she could solve this one.

_So much for that._

_Brace for impact._  
So she did.

* * *

 

**[Three Month’s Prior]**

“Why am I being fired?” Felicity asked as she hot-footed it into the large corner office with the skyscraper view on the 45th floor of the Queen Consolidated building  
“Ms Smoak is it?” Moira Queen replied calmly, and unwavering calm in her tone that said a pint-sized IT girl barging into her office in sensible Mary Janes was an everyday occurrence  
“Yes, and I am without a doubt the single most valuable member of your technical division” she rambled as her eyes maintained somewhat of a laser focus “And that’s including my so called supervisor” she paused to take a breath, the enormity of her actions in the moment starting to resonate

But, she’d already burst in the office like a mad woman, no sense stopping now...  
“Letting me go would be a major error for this company”  
“I agree” Moira replied gently folding the file on her desk closed “which is why you’re not being fired”

 _Shit. If she wasn’t going to fire her before..._  
“Oh, I assumed when you brought me up here it was because” she lingered on the last word before pretending to garrotte herself with her thumb, an overly expressive sound effect accompanying the gesture

“It’s because I wanted you to look into this” Moira said as she pushed a small black case the size of a mobile phone across her desk  
“What is this?” Felicity asked curiously as she collected the case without reservation, her intrepid nature urging her on  
“That’s what I’m hoping you can tell me” Moira sighed, glancing her eyes back towards a photo that sat on her desk, Felicity didn’t need to see it in that moment to know what it was – it was the same photo that had sat on her desk for the last 4 years, a photo of Moira’s late husband and son.

“About a year after the Gambit sunk, I hired professional salvages to bring it back to me, I thought back then it would bring me some sort of peace. It has taken this long but about six months ago they finally delivered it” she sighed as she ran a slow, trembling finger across her neatly groomed eyebrow

“I needed to rest at night knowing I had done everything I could”  
Felicity nodded slowly as she hovered between feet, unsure whether she should stay standing or sit down without an invitation

“I’ve had people combing through the wreckage trying to find out what happened and all they could tell me was they didn’t know, they couldn’t tell” she paused, her painted red lips pulled tightly “until they found that”

Moira nodded down to the case in Felicity’s grasp.  
“I’m told the data chips and the fragments of the ship’s computer navigation system are useless, broken beyond repair”  
“But you don’t believe them?”  
Moira looked up, her brows softening and her chin lightly dipping to the side.  
“I’m a woman that runs a multi-billion dollar company, I firmly believing in testing what people say is impossible, and that’s where you come in”

“Me?” Felicity asked, a little more timidly than she would have like to portray in front of this strong-willed woman  
“They tell me you are the best”  
“Thank you” Felicity smiled awkwardly, she hadn’t expected a compliment of that nature when she had fumed her way into the office minutes before “but I’m not sure what I can do”

“Just look, tell me if there is anything there, any reason why I lost both my husband and my son that day. Let me close the book on this” she resonated “finally” she added in a soft whisper

“I’ll see what I can do”  
Moira thanked her without words.  
“I’m your girl” Felicity said as she backed away slowly, counting the steps in her head towards the door

“I mean, I’m not your girl, I wasn’t making a pass at you” she sighed, her face screwing up for a moment when Moira simply nodded  
“Thank you for not firing me”

  
**[One Month Later]**

For the second time in a few weeks Felicity found herself in that same corner office on the 45th floor with 10pm looming and the City provide a curtain of glimmering lights outside the glass walls, with Moira Queen patiently waiting on what she was about to say.

“So I looked into it, and there wasn’t much to find” Felicity started her hands gesturing nervously from side to side  
“Well thank you Ms Smoak, I –“  
“Wait” Felicity interrupted, thrusting an arm somewhat awkwardly into the air “I said not much, I didn’t say nothing”

“You found something?” Moira asked, an eyebrow perching his higher on her forehead  
“The Gambit’s navigation system was interlinked with the GSP trackers in the life boats, the radius isn’t that great and I can’t get exact bearings because apparently that sort of information was judged unnecessary for the recording to keep so it dumped most of it but I found a cache that-“

Moira held a regal hand up, her other hand tapping a pen slowly to her forehead.  
“I’m sorry Felicity you lost me, do you think you could just tell me the end?”  
“Right, sorry” Felicity said as she took a breath and a moment to compose herself  
Moira smiled, bleakly, the long day and fluttering hope still entrenched in her heart was making this almost unbearable.

“One of the lifeboats was active”  
“Meaning?”  
“Someone turned it on. Mrs Queen, at least one person got off that boat before it sunk, alive and coherent enough to turn on the tracker”

“But they looked”  
“I tracked where the coastguard looked and I studied the weather patterns, and I had a friend of mine look into the currents and” Felicity paused to catch her breath, slowing her racing heart “I think they looked the wrong way”

She unfolded the map tucked under her arm and Moira stood in response, leaning over the desk to study the same.

“They searched, here, here, and along here” Felicity said, drawing her midnight blue nail across the red line that she had drawn  
“They should have looked here” she lifted her finger and placed it back down in the middle of a green circle she had drawn “most of it is open ocean and we won’t find anything out there after this much time, but this” she tapped on an cluster of small islands in the middle of the green space “this might be something”

“You think the life boat could be on that island?”  
“I think it’s worth looking”

Moira stepped back, one arm wrapped around her slender waste, the other tapping the pen she still held against her sensible grey-pencil skirt.  
“Have you told anyone else about this?”  
“No, I mean my friend the meteorologist, but he didn’t know why”

Felicity watched as Moira took another lap of the corner area of her office, her shoes making soft tapping noises as she walked.  
“Mrs Queen, I really think you should look here, send an army”  
“I can’t” Moira quipped  
“Why?”

Moira closed her lips tightly, there was more to this than she was telling the young, curious IT girl, but she wasn’t sure if they were nothing more than musing of an idle mind; that or she was too scared to utter the words herself; so she opted for something close to the truth.

“I’m afraid that the media will pick up on that, then Thea will get her hopes up only for us to find nothing. Thank you for your help Ms Smoak”  
“So you’re going to do nothing?”  
“You’ve done an exceptional job Ms Smoak, but I can’t live on false hopes, I can’t start that media circus again”  
“So don’t” Felicity remarked, drawing out the ‘t’ as she walked around the corner of the desk, her fingers tapping ritualistically along the lip of it “I’ll go”

Moira looked up, perplexed by the offer.  
“If I can fly close around this area and if the tracker is still active, I might be able to pick something up, bring back some proof”  
“Discretely?”  
Felicity nodded assuredly.

“Take whatever resources you need, I’ll fly you to China under the guise of visiting our sister company out there”  
“A Gavin would be good” Felicity quipped  
“I’m sorry?”  
“Gavin, in the electronics division, a second set of hands would be useful and he speaks Mandarin” Felicity replied as she straightened her skirt and toyed with the lanyard around her neck

“Then you’ll have a Gavin” Moira agreed “but please, don’t call attention to this”  
“Scouts honour” Felicity said as she saluted awkwardly  
“Not that I’m a scout, or that they salute like that” she paused, closing her eyes briefly “and I will just” she pointed back towards the door “leave now”

“Ms Smoak” Moira called, causing Felicity to turn on her heels just as she reached for the door  
“Thank you” Moira added genuinely  
“For what? I haven’t found anything all that useful yet”  
“For hope”

Felicity bobbed her head in recognition before she slipped from the office. She was going to the North China Sea to looked for a four year old life boat in the hopes it could tell her what happened all those years ago…..

* * *

  
**[Present Day]**

 _Brace for impact._  
Her search for hope wasn’t supposed to end like this.

  
**So, that’s all you get for now folks.**  
**I know, I know you haven’t even MET Oliver yet, how could I just finish there, but I did, so it is what it is ;)**  
**You may hear rumours about the type of sex-capades I have promised in this fic. They are all true.**

**If you have any questions/comments/ideas/whatever feel free to pop them in the comments section or look me up on Twitter or Tumblr @someonesaidcake**

 

**THE VOTING HAS CLOSED**

**_Thank you xox_ **

**If you have any questions/comments/ideas/whatever feel free to pop them in the comments section or look me up on Twitter or Tumblr @someonesaidcake**

  
**Want to see what won my little challenge?[find “Thursday” here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10688658) **

 

 **Mood** : Plotty (but just a sprinkling), long stares at each other, sexual tension (unresolved and resolved in a cave), adventure, frisky, “if I’m going to die on this island, I might as well die happy”, very Olicity-centric, angst (duh), you probably won’t cry but I make no promises.  
  
**Oliver** : Four years on an Island has made him a little cranky, rugged, hot, horny but unwilling to openly admit it, Tarzan without the monkeys.

 **Felicity** : she hates mysteries, just learning how strong she is, Season 1-esque (so expect mild babbling and innuendo), Jane to his Tarzan

 **Warnings** : You might need cold showers frequently.

 **Song Inspiration** : Castle of Glass ~ Linkin Park

 


End file.
